Buddy Can You Spare A Trillion?

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Well, as promised, here is the first “under-the-radar – F*ck FB’s censorship” piece of news for you to peruse.

It’s about them streaming thieving fiends (again) – and I’m sure you’ll find this a most interesting read. I hope to see many of your thoughts here – not “there”! Comments are open – but moderated, so it may take a short while before they appear below. The article is called Does Failure to Pay Pre-1972 Royalties Put Trillion Dollar Hole in Pandoras Bottom Line? – and you can click here to view it.

I very much look forward to what you have to say about it… C’mon – do me proud

Well, most of us “content creators” really don’t fancy pickin’ up a squeegee – https://duckduckgo.com/?q=squeegee – and hangin’ out on Main Street hoping to collect 50 cent windshield royalties at this point… :-O

Yeah, it’s pretty dire – more Banditos than Fritos in the biz at this point.

I recently was asked to assist a new band out of Australia to make it in the USA. I pointed out to them that putting works out digitally put it at risk but that you have to seek the following through social media and live performance to get paid. They wanted to go to the studio and cut a recording old style. My question to them was where’s your market? I am not sure you could even MC Hammer your way town to town to sell your product anymore. The big boys know that it takes huge dollars to chase down infringements with litigation and, once you have someone dead to rights, they file bankruptcy and the costs begin to exceed the value of the work. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen!

What’s that “in vogue” expression? “…it’s complicated”. But you of all people know this Bill, from your years in the industry and as one of my fave “Legal Eagles”.

As you state above, there is no simple solution. Making a record certainly isn’t it! If an artiste gets major backing from a major label (woof!) then the “360 deal” robs you of your rightful earnings, in a manner not dissimilar to what the streamers are doing.

The only way I see new artists moving forward is by playing many live shows, developing the good old fashioned “Grass Roots” following, learning how to use social media *properly* …and then having heaps of luck.

By the way, a really good book (I wrote the Foreword) that deals with just these items is called : “The Artists Guide to Success in the Music Business”. Highly recommended! Check it out : http://lorenweisman.com/

1) This type of evasive accounting pervades this business and remaining completely still and making like a tree will not make it go away in the long term, and sooner or later everyone’s bill falls due!
2) I thought the rules applying to royalty payment were just increased to 70 years (but I may have that wrong)
3) Can’t they get a payday loan to cover this?
4) Representatives of artists should consider a class action? Is that feasible?

1) Indeed, “creative accounting” is not unique to the music industry. Regrettably, we see more than our fair share (or should I say we *don’t* see)
2) Copyright ownership is tricky, and varies country to county. Whilst some copyright owners have indeed been given “more time”, this does not stop the bandits at Pandora, SpotyFry et al.
3) Made me LOL
4) Class action would be nice. I doubt it would ever happen. Trying to unify artists and content creators is more challenging than herding cats. (When I joined Local 802 AF of M in 1963 we had 52,000 members. That # has shrunk to 12,000. Just one example…) And I do not trust the vast majority of those who “represent” artists.

Wow, I know that their are plenty of artists to feed this cannabalistic industry, but this takes the cake. I would hope that the money might motivate a giant tort filing to get people something instead of nothing.

holy crap….this is ridiculous. Thank you for keeping me abreast of the criminality of what is going on right now. It is terrible to think of what this is doing to the community of musicians both established and those who are coming of age…my heart goes out to my friends who have worked their asses off for a lifetime to now be slapped in the face by these irreverent bastards. I hope the Turtles blow Pandora to hell and that other musicians will band together in kind. This so called ‘business model’ is more like Rape by another name. Thank you ER…you are a champ for doing this work.

Tell us how you really feel, Stan! Your words of indignation speak for so many of us. I would say “my pleasure to share this info”, but polititudes aside, I feel that we owe each other a duty to make the less obvious insidiousness known far and wide.

“Karma is a Bitch” …but until then, let’s keep up the good fight, and we set an example with dignity and groove.

It shouldn’t be peanuts! What I meant by complicated is this: if one tells a lie, one must remember the lie and who it was told to. Often, another lie is required to clarify what was meant by the first lie. Pretty soon, it gets confusing trying to remember the lie. It’s always easy to remember the truth. With a law, you’ve got to figure out how to justify an obviously immoral act which ultimately goes to court and requires more lawyers, interpretation and money. It’s just much easier doing the right thing. Shoot, it may be cheaper in the end. For certain, I will NOT be a Pandora or XM user ever again. Thanks for calling this to our attention, Elliott.